Before dredging of Bonito Lake can proceed, city of Alamogordo officials must determine how much of the sediment in the lake bottom existed before the 2012 Little Bear Fire and what percentage was washed into the lake after the fire stripped the watershed of vegetation.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay 75 percent only toward removal of sediment deposited after the fire.

(Photo: Dianne Stallings/Ruidoso News)

(Photo: Dianne Stallings/Ruidoso News)

A representative of Terracon, a Las Cruces firm preparing a proposed scope of work to drill cores into the sediment at various locations, visited the site Friday, Justin King with King Industries said Wednesday. King is onsite project manager for the lake, working with Bohannon Huston Inc., the city's consulting engineer.

"He took pictures and is putting together a scope of work," King said. "His work will tell us the quantity of material in the lake, the depth at different locations, the type of materials and the amount of pre and post event sediment."

Before the fire that burned more than 250 homes and 44,500 acres, the lake was a major water source for the city and for Holloman Air Force Base in Otero County, although it lies within the borders of Lincoln County. The city operated a campground at the lake, as did the U.S. Forest Service, but everything has been shut down since the June 2012 fire.

For Terracon or any other company to move ahead with work on the lake, most of the water had to be drained, something accomplished last week. When city officials saw the exposed bottom, they estimated the ash and other sediment was more than 50 feet deep.

Restoration of the lake is estimated to be completed in late 2017, but variables such as weather could affect that date, officials have said.